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its going to be good this year I reckon, would love to see sastre do well but i cant see beyond Vinokourov at the moment. With all the drug shit that has gone on so far this year heres hoping its a clean one as well

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Ahh, we can hope. I mean... the upper echelons (geddit) of cycling IMO still dont care, because they still have this rider centric punishment for the offense, as if the rider is doping himself. Rather than a team centric punishment, where the heads of the team and the Doctor are punished.
As long as they try to blame the rider for the system that they create and maintain, they dont care.

But... yeah, even with all the drugs and scandals, I still think its more or less the definition of epic.

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Its certainly hard to predict anything based on form this year thats for sure. Valverde had a miserable Dauphine, but he claimed to be sick during it. Vinikourov tried for a bit, blew in the mountains a couple of times, then gave up. Kasheckin doesn't look to be the rider I thought him in the tour of Spain last year. But he and Vini do work well together.

Based on absolutely nothing though, I have a sneaking suspicion for Carlos Sastre. His team, CSC, have proven one of the strongest about for the last few years, and though he has hardly been seen this year yet, I think he could be the one to lead them into Paris.

Other contenders are a little too flaky. The likes of Menchov, Moreau, maybe even Voekler and Chavanel.

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Yeah i threw a few quid on sastre at 16-1 i think! I still have a sneaky suspicion that he just doesnt have a tour win in him. Last year on some stages he looked great but fell off the pace on the others . You seen the Overcoming film? its well worth a watch it is!

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Yeah i threw a few quid on sastre at 16-1 i think! I still have a sneaky suspicion that he just doesnt have a tour win in him. Last year on some stages he looked great but fell off the pace on the others . You seen the Overcoming film? its well worth a watch it is!

its just that its hard to see how there won't be someone from CSC in the shake-up. Its too soon for Andy Schleck (and he has a Giro in his legs at the moment), Frank wouldn't be up to it, and theres no one else really. So Sastre is definately gonna be CSC's main man.

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Vinokourov is a phenomenally tough bastard. He can get some digs in on the mountains, and as seen in the Dauphine you dont mess with him on the time trails. Armstrong just about had the mental edge over him, but that was crumbling fast.
I think Vino believes he has it coming to him too.

But... I mean, it's almost anyone's Tour. Really really hard to call. If Sastre can drop him on the Cols... I dunno.
Its so hard to drop Vinokourov though, he is a real hang in there or die tryin' merchant.

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Yeah i threw a few quid on sastre at 16-1 i think! I still have a sneaky suspicion that he just doesnt have a tour win in him. Last year on some stages he looked great but fell off the pace on the others . You seen the Overcoming film? its well worth a watch it is!

i've put bets on menchov at 18-1 and karpets at 28-1 with 5 euro eachway on both

i think menchov did well in the dauphinhe without peaking too early and that';s promising

karpets is in form with catalunya and switzerland wins though maybe he's peaked too early. as said before, the 2 AV's performances in the dauphine didn't give me much confidence. i s the last 5 days of the race and yes vino performed well on some days but just not.

the doubt i have with sastre is that he's not good enough of a time triallist and i don't feel he'll gain enough time back

whilke for the mountains, i think garate will wrestle it off rasmussen this year. rasmussen i don't think is 100% after the injury he got at the end of last year

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It'll be open to a concerted effort from a strong team but gots to be Vinokourov for me, I'd like to see him win it actually. A european with a bit of class, not one of these shoddy drugged-up yanks. (IFF - I'm joking, calm down).

Eurosport on the NTL digital this year, woo! G'wan the David Duffield I've taken Wednesday 25th off work for the last big mountain stage. Three of the other mountain stages land on a Sat or Sun. Only other decent looking one looks like Tuesday 17th.

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It'll be open to a concerted effort from a strong team but gots to be Vinokourov for me, I'd like to see him win it actually. A european with a bit of class, not one of these shoddy drugged-up yanks. (IFF - I'm joking, calm down).

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I dont really think that the idea that the Yanks have some sort of monopoly on drugs is true.
Landis was one of the good guys in the Peleton by the way. A really nice guy. Not that it matters that much, but, of anyone to be caught, its sad that it was him.

oh I reckon I know alright. Sure look at what has happened the various USPS/DC riders since they've left the team. Heras, Hamilton, Landis. And then they go and sign Basso. Shows what kind of morals that team had.

Then there was the double admission, one by Freddie Andreu, and another by some other guy of the Postal team. And they were the lads helping Lance. Would be hard to believe they were loaded up on drugs to help a lad that wasn't.

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I dont really think that the idea that the Yanks have some sort of monopoly on drugs is true.
Landis was one of the good guys in the Peleton by the way. A really nice guy. Not that it matters that much, but, of anyone to be caught, its sad that it was him.

yeah, but hes been a bit of a dick since then. He was caught and should hold his hands up and admit it. That whole Phonak team were dodge as hell. Look at yer man Guiterrez in the Giro last year. Came out of nowhere to challenge for overall, and ended up on the podium. Within months he was suspended. Then they had Hamilton on their books for a while too.

Landis was so desperate not to lose the tour last year after balking on stage 16 that he got sloppy. To lose 10 minutes one day and get it all back the next was just a bit much. Like the old saying goes; 'if it seems too good to be true, chances are that its not true'. His protestations since have been consistent with his initial desire not to lose his tour title, thats for sure, but at this stage, his reputation has been so tarnished that I don't really see the difference in whether he loses it or not. The only other thing is that maybe he truly does believe he was clean and that he didn't know what the doctors were doing to him. I often think that could be the case.

Landis was Mr.Nice Guy. As was Tyler Hamilton before him.

Vinikourov has said this will be his second to last year as a pro, and he wants to ride his last year as tour de France champion. He'll be going all out. Astana have a hell of a team. If they select Mazolleni, Klodeon, Kasheckin to help him, its difficult enough to see past him winning alright.

Interesting also that there'll be no number 1 in this year's tour. The first team's (CSC I think) numbers will start at 11.

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oh I reckon I know alright. Sure look at what has happened the various USPS/DC riders since they've left the team. Heras, Hamilton, Landis. And then they go and sign Basso. Shows what kind of morals that team had.

Ok, so all Postal riders were doped. But, like, so were most riders. Once in a while you hear about clean riders, but they are really the exception to the rule. Chris Boardman was clean. As was Obree. I would say Millar is clean now. Pretty much all of the rest weren't.
Catching one rider, and making a pariah of him makes me sick, because they all do it, and they basically have no choice.
The team runs the doping programs, not the riders. The team take kids, and basically force them to dope. Then one gets caught say, and its pack your bags time.

Put yourself in their position. All riders are doping around you. You have to ride to survive. You have minimal education. You have next to no chance to go to college. You have dedicated your life to riding. Your doctor is anxious to start you on The Program. Everyone in the team is sitting around, looking at you, showing no ill effects of any sort. You are having a hard time with the winter training. You allow them to start you on a small bit and everything is doable again.